CARIBOU, Maine — Caribou City Council is delaying until the 11th hour a final vote to approve the 2021 tax rate, the group decided at a June 14 meeting. They agreed to meet on June 28 for a single-issue special meeting.
The council is waiting for the Maine Legislature to decide whether to fund Gov. Janet Mills’ budget, specifically a $187 million line of funding that fulfills a commitment for the state to pay 55 percent of public school essential services costs. RSU 39, the Caribou area school district, would see about $237,000 of that allocation should the Legislature approve the educational funds in full, Town Manager Dennis Marker said.
The school district’s annual budget has already been finalized, but includes a provision — Article 18 — that should the school receive additional state subsidies, they can either keep the money within the district or use it to decrease the burden on taxpayers. Because Caribou collects taxes for RSU 39, this would mean moving the funds back to the city for redistribution.
The council hopes that the city will get that money following an influx of funds into the district’s coffers, but with a June 30 city charter deadline for setting the budget, and a number of logistical hurdles before the money becomes the city’s to use, they’re running out of time to incorporate those funds into the bottom line.
For one, the special legislative session plows on with no fixed deadline, and a decision on the educational funding has yet to be made.
And while Article 18 gives the school board the option to create a tax break, the board would have to decide which route to take with the money before the town would be able to add it to its bottom line
The majority of the councilors agreed that the wait is worth it anyway. This year, the projected mill rate is the same as last year: 23.55.
“I”m not good at reading the tea leaves — we can assume nothing is going to change and for me personally I feel more comfortable, let’s make the decision when we have all the apples in front of us,” councilor Doug Morrell said.
The sole vote against was Joan Theriault, who felt the sum of what they might receive from the state and the school was too small to justify putting off sending out the tax bills.
“I can’t imagine that this would change anything as far as the tax rate goes, plus it would give [Assessor’s Agent] Penny [Thompson] and her department time to start getting the tax bills out, which will generate the money quicker coming in, so I just don’t think we need to put this off any longer regardless of whether we get the money or not.”
At the meeting, the council also amended several town ordinances, including specifying the councilor qualifications to include language requiring sitting councilors to have paid their taxes to-date.
The council also unanimously amended the campground standards to allow smaller pieces of land to be used for camps — a minimum of 3 acres downtown and 7 acres elsewhere. The move was inspired by Troy Haney, a resident who’s looking to develop a campground on Limestone Street by the Aroostook River.
Mayor Jody Smith also moved to abolish the controversial ambulance committee, which was a group formed to investigate the ambulance department’s funds. The committee had been led by Morrell and operated under the intense scrutiny of some Caribou residents who felt the intent of the committee was to abolish the department — a claim which Morrell and other members of the committee vigorously denied during Monday’s meeting.
Smith said he’s received more inquiries about the committee than any other matter of business in his time as mayor.
“There’s a lot of misunderstanding and misconception, I believe, about this committee,” Smith said. “I’m going to eliminate this committee at this time until I get clear direction from council about what the scope of work will be and what we want for citizen involvement.”
